Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to the field of call centers. In one aspect, the present invention relates to an information handling system, method, and apparatus for monitoring the emotional content call center dialogs.
Description of the Related Art
Call centers are well known today to handle a variety of requests or problems that arise between customers and companies. For example, some call centers in the form of “help desks” assist customers with problems with their computer hardware or software or other products. Other call centers assist customers with purchasing products or services or in billing matters or provide information about products or services. A large call center typically employs many personnel to assist the caller, to help fix a problem, to answer the caller's questions, or to transact business. The nature of call center work can create emotionally stressful work conditions that arise from crowded conditions at the center, from the stressful nature of communications with customers who are frustrated or disappointed with their purchase, from misunderstandings between the customer(s) and call center agent, and other factors. While contact center agent interactions are typically guided by a script or flowchart to facilitate the customer experience, the human nature of the participants means that customers can respond both positively and negatively to the language and attitude exhibited by the agent, and agents can, despite training, still convey attitudes and emotions with their language that can affect a customer negatively, adversely affecting the customer's attitude and behavior towards the company. While Key Performance Indicators (KPI) (e.g., call abandon rate, call handling time, first call resolution, transfer rate, idle and hold time) can be used to evaluate the success of a call center, most quality measurements, including phone etiquette and agent behavior, are either not monitored or sporadically monitored by having a supervisor listen to the calls of a single, randomly-selected agent, limiting a supervisor to monitor one agent at a time. Unfortunately, this approach results in supervisor interventions which misses calls that are likely to run into trouble or that have already escalated the customer's frustration and anger level, and/or which fail to find a more appropriate agent that is better matched to the emotional state of the caller. As a result, the existing solutions for monitoring the emotional content call center dialogs are inefficient and ineffective at a practical level.